The editor of Newsnight, Peter Rippon, who "stepped aside" on Monday after the BBC said he had made "inaccurate or incomplete" statements about the Jimmy Savile scandal, could be forced to appear before MPs.

The Commons culture, media and sport committee will hear evidence from the BBC director general, George Entwistle, on Tuesday, but will consider asking Rippon and other Newsnight journalists to appear before them if they feel his evidence is incomplete.

Entwistle, himself a former Newsnight editor, forced Rippon to stand aside from his job at the head of the BBC2 programme. Rippon has been in the spotlight since it emerged he scrapped a Newsnight report on allegations of abuse by Savile a few weeks before the BBC was to air tributes to the DJ and presenter, who died last October, aged 84. Had the Newsnight film aired, the BBC programme would have been the first to reveal stories of Savile's abuse of teenage girls – 10 months before an ITV documentary lifted the lid on his activities.

Ben Bradshaw, a member of the committee, said: "If the committee doesn't feel that Entwistle has given us a satisfactory explanation, then I think we will want to talk to other people. Somebody needs to establish the facts, and act quickly and decisively upon them."

A Conservative member of the committee, Damian Collins, said it would "have to consider" whether to launch a broader inquiry into what happened about the BBC's handling of the sexual abuse revelations. Such a move could lead to public sessions that lay bare the BBC's bitter internal row over the Savile affair.

Collins said MPs would have to consider Entwistle's evidence – and possibly wait for an independent inquiry led by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News, which is due to report by the end of the year.

The BBC issued two significant corrections to Rippon's version of events that had been published in a BBC blogpost on 3 October, when the allegations about abuse by Savile first emerged.

The move, made before Monday night's airing on BBC1 of a Panorama programme about the affair, was prompted in part by a dispute about Rippon's published account. Panorama obtained previously unpublished emails from Newsnight journalists involved in the Savile investigation complaining to Rippon that his version of events was wrong.

The journalists – producer Meirion Jones and reporter Liz MacKean – are both likely to give their version of events to the select committee if asked. Bitter that their investigation into Savile's conduct was halted last year, both gave interviews to the Panorama programme.

The BBC determined that Rippon was incorrect when he wrote on October 3: "We are confident that all the women we spoke to had contacted the police independently already. We also had no new evidence against any other person that would have helped the police." Instead, the BBC statement said, the truth was that "it appears that in some cases women had not spoken to the police and that the police were not aware of all the allegations".

Panorama's coverage of abuse by Savile in the 1970s largely consisted of stories already highlighted in newspapers, including the case of Kevin Cook, who – as a nine-year-old boy scout – was molested on the set of Jim'll Fix It. There was also a broad allegation of a sex ring operated by staff connected with Top of the Pops, although this was not directly linked to Savile.

The programme also revealed that Rippon did not see the key on-the-record interview his journalists had secured with one of Savile's victims, Karin Ward. Rippon also used a surprising phrase in an email to dismiss the evidence that the production team had secured, noting it consisted of a background briefing and "just the women" – referring to on-the-record but anonymous testimonies Newsnight had obtained against Savile.

Newsnight's key evidence came from Ward, who said she had been a victim of Savile and repeatedly told programme makers she had never gone to the police. The BBC also said Rippon was wrong to write "we found no evidence against the BBC" in Newsnight's investigation last November. The correction said the Newsnight team had uncovered "some allegations of abusive conduct on BBC premises", although there was "no allegation" that BBC staff were aware of Savile's alleged activities.

David Cameron stepped into the row on Monday. He said he was troubled that the BBC had felt obliged to make corrections to Rippon's public statements. He said that the developments were "concerning because the BBC has effectively changed its story about why it dropped the Newsnight programme about Jimmy Savile". He added that this raised "serious questions" and that he expected the Pollard review and other inquiries to answer them.

The BBC and other institutions where Savile is alleged to have abused children are facing up to 18 claims for damages from the victims.

Liz Dux, a lawyer specialising in child abuse cases, told the Guardian the number of cases had mounted in the past week as women became more confident about suing in light of the Metropolitan police revelation that Savile may have been one of the UK's worst sex offenders.

Dux is preparing to bring cases against the BBC, Stoke Mandeville hospital and Duncroft approved school on the grounds that they had "vicarious liability" for the activities of their staff or their agents.